Tomaz Martinek

Tomaz worked tirelessly to organize our trip the way we wanted and Grand Cuvee Tours managed it. Given the complexity of the trip for 3 countries over more than 2 weeks there were a few snafus which were well managed by the GCT team, but in all everything went extremely well. Italy was awesome and some of the hotels we stayed at were fantastic. In particular, the guide we had at the Uffizi gallery was very helpful and knowledgeable and the lady who guided us around Salzburg easily adapted to... read more

Tomaz worked tirelessly to organize our trip the way we wanted and Grand Cuvee Tours managed it. Given the complexity of the trip for 3 countries over more than 2 weeks there were a few snafus which were well managed by the GCT team, but in all everything went extremely well. Italy was awesome and some of the hotels we stayed at were fantastic. In particular, the guide we had at the Uffizi gallery was very helpful and knowledgeable and the lady who guided us around Salzburg easily adapted to what we wanted to see and went out of her way to ensure we managed our way through the atrocious weather. We also had some great drivers, including Vincenzo who managed our visit to Pompeii and had an infectious sense of humor. This was the first time my adopted daughter visited Europe and she loved every day of it. Thank you everyone who helped make this a memorable vacation.

We were very pleased with the service we received from Tomasz and others. You arranged for hotels and guides that fit our requests, and we had a wonderful trip. One minor matter was that on our rental car return to Sixt in Munich, we were given the address of the office for Sizt and it should have been their rental return in a nearby (but hard to get to) location. The local manager made the problem go away for us. read more

We were very pleased with the service we received from Tomasz and others. You arranged for hotels and guides that fit our requests, and we had a wonderful trip. One minor matter was that on our rental car return to Sixt in Munich, we were given the address of the office for Sizt and it should have been their rental return in a nearby (but hard to get to) location. The local manager made the problem go away for us.

Tomaz and Zala did a fantastic job planning our trip to Switzerland. Every detail was taken care of and everything worked out without any issues. The trip plan was exactly what we had in mind- great hikes, beautiful scenery, very great accommodations which were all very well located and clean, cozy and with great breakfasts! We would highly recommend Tomaz and Zala to anyone interested in exploring Switzerland. Thank you both!! read more

Tomaz and Zala did a fantastic job planning our trip to Switzerland. Every detail was taken care of and everything worked out without any issues. The trip plan was exactly what we had in mind- great hikes, beautiful scenery, very great accommodations which were all very well located and clean, cozy and with great breakfasts! We would highly recommend Tomaz and Zala to anyone interested in exploring Switzerland. Thank you both!!

Hotel Reviews

Cascada Hotel 4*

Lucerne

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Interlaken

3800

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Backstage Hotel Vernissage

Zermatt

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Angleterre & Résidence

Lausanne

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Review

Cheese Tuk-tuk tour

Luzern

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Nice trip. Had wonderful time. read more

Nice trip. Had wonderful time.

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Kaiserin Elisabeth

Vienna

Very nice. Convenient. No bar or outside sitting area.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

IMLAUER HOTEL PITTER Salzburg

Salzburg

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Dachau Concentration Camp

Munich

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Guided walking tour of Salzburg

Salzburg

Had Peter, he was AMAZING!!!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Castle with fortress above Salzburg

Salzburg

Self tour.

Quality of Experience

Biking in Wachau Valley

Vienna

Good ride. Great guide.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Small-group Nuremberg nazi party rally grounds and old town tour

Germany

Really not a small group. Like 16.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Informative

Transport

Train great but tour longer then scheduled so missed train. Had to rebook which is difficult when you don’t know the system.

Segway tour

Munich

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Visit Eagle's nest

Salzburg

Leopold out driver guide was AMAZING.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Guided private walking tour of Hallstatt

Austria

ANNA from Atlanta was amazing. Great tour.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

LEOPOLD!!!

Hallstatt Salt Mine

Austria

Private tour with LEOPOLD again.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Guided walking tour of Vienna City Highlights

Vienna

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Schönbrunn Palace & Gardens

Vienna

Self tour.

Guided tour of Spanish Riding School

Vienna

Self tour.

Concert at Kursalon

Vienna

Tour guide and bus driver was very good

We had a fantastic trip. Everything was planned out perfectly and there were no problems at all with all the planned activities. Wolfy, our guide on the walking food tour of Vienna was outstanding and I would highly recommend both this tour and him as a guide.

Thank you to Tomaz and the team for all the planning. We thoroughly enjoyed the vacation.

Great Planning, Horrible Execution

KimKim was a wonderful service to use. However the Switzerland extension they used to execute the planned activities was poor and obviously over priced.

Won’t be using again.

Once booking with Tomaz and KimKim, my friend and I were given to a local company with Zala helping us. Overall, the trip and recommendations were amazing. Day by day feedback to follow.

We had great directions from Zala regarding transportation and luckily the train was easy to get the hang of. Our first hotel was Hotel Josef. Very cute hotel and close to the train as promised. What we didn't know however, was that there was no front desk at this hotel. Check in was a bit difficult,... read more

Once booking with Tomaz and KimKim, my friend and I were given to a local company with Zala helping us. Overall, the trip and recommendations were amazing. Day by day feedback to follow.

We had great directions from Zala regarding transportation and luckily the train was easy to get the hang of. Our first hotel was Hotel Josef. Very cute hotel and close to the train as promised. What we didn't know however, was that there was no front desk at this hotel. Check in was a bit difficult, especially after a full day of travel. Written on the locked hotel's door was a note to walk to a nearby hotel after 9pm. We arrived around 7:30pm on a Saturday. We called the number on the door as well as the number provided in our paperwork. Neither number worked. We took it upon ourselves to walk to the nearby hotel and ask for some assistance. Turns out check in was via a kiosk inside the restaurant and we needed a code to get in the main door. This would have been helpful information to know before arrival.

The Limmat River cruise ticket was covered with the Swiss pass. Suggestions on where to get off and walk around would have been helpful. The Zurich Small Group Tour is not something I would recommend. There was no explanation of what was on the tour (i.e. number of stops, type of food or type of drink) prior to booking it. The first stop was for beer, meat, and cheese. There was no alternative to the beer, which neither of us drink so that was a huge waste of beer and our money. I expected information from the tour guide about the types of cheeses and meats available. There was only information about the beer from the waiter at the restaurant. The tour guide, unfortunately, didn't know any information. Next, the weather didn't cooperate and there was a big downpour preventing us from getting to our next stop. We improvised and stopped for a drink at a nearby bar to wait out the rain. Because we stopped here and because supposedly the third (and final) stop was closed, our guide provided 5 CHF toward the wine, and we covered the rest. She seemed unsure of her budget and considering there was no backup plan for rain or for a closed final stop, I don't think we should have had to cover our own glass of wine. The final stop was for fondue. This was a cute place, but again, not much information. The other people on the tour booked the tour on their own and cost about 150 CAD, about $115. This tour was NOT worth anywhere close to that. Quite a disappointment.

Mt. Pilatus was amazing. Absolutely worth every penny and all the time! It was very cloudy, so we did not get the panoramic views, but a risk you must take. What we were not told about was that there is a stop on the descent with fantastic activities including a ropes course, zip line, glider, and toboggan. Because we didn’t know these existed, by the time we got down to this part, we could not do the ropes course, which is something that we would have loved to do. We were able to do the zip line and toboggan, which were very fun! I highly recommend them.

Lucerne was adorable. There was a lot to see and do. Hotel Central Luzern was such a cute hotel. The front desk staff was fantastic. In fact, everyone was. The room was teeny tiny though. Barely room to walk around and the bathroom door was a frosted glass door with the toilet right in front of it, so there was no privacy. The space was not so much the issue because we were only there to sleep, but the lack of privacy would have been an issue if we needed to stay more than 1 night. Hotel Château Gütsch was not recommended to us, but we saw it in the skyline and is worth the time.

We stayed in Interlaken for quite a while. I’m guessing because it was central to a lot of the big activities we had planned. The downside, the area was small with not much to do. Even with suggestions from the hotel, everything was closed after the activities we had planned for the day, so the evenings were very boring. The higher altitude activities required a heavier jacket, which we were warned about before the trip. I had arranged with Zala to rent a jacket by asking the hotel staff as there was supposed to be somewhere to rent nearby our hotel. Unfortunately, after asking multiple people, they were all unaware of places to rent during the summer. This induced a bit of a panic. We called the number provided and were able to speak to Tomaz. He was not aware of anywhere either. Within about an hour, Zala had emailed with alternative locations. Some of which I had already explored, but ultimately, the rental location on the way to Jungfrau worked out. Having specific details already planned into the itinerary about the rental location would have eased some unnecessary stress. With all that said, Zala was very attentive through email with all my questions while we were local. The Funky Chocolate Club was amazing. The experience was fun and there was a lot of information, and everything was hands-on plus goodies to take away. A friend suggested the Staubbach falls, which were beautiful. There is also panoramic hotel nearby that we discovered while walking around and that is also something I would recommend.

It could have been mentioned, but there was a ton of rainy days everywhere we went except for Lausanne. I did bring a light rain jacket, but it was a lot of rain and ended up with soaking wet shoes because we did not want to miss out on exploring. Luckily the rain was intermittent. St. Beatus Caves and Oberhofen Castle is worth the visit. The caves were spectacular. Hotel Interlaken was great. Spacious and good breakfast.

The trip to Grindelwald was easy to navigate. The mountain carts were a blast! To get to the carts was a trek though. When booking our trip, we did pick the mountain carts, however, we were not told that we could bundle and do more than one activity for a discounted price. The trek was long to get to the activities and the carts lasted only a few minutes of fun, so we instantly wanted to do more. To do that though, we would have had to buy the activity and the gondola. We were incredibly disappointed to learn it would have cost a tremendous amount to do that instead of pre-bundling.

Zermatt was a bit of a disappointment. We did not realize that going to the Matterhorn would cost anything let alone 71 CHF with the Swiss Pass. We did not end up doing that. The town was cute, but we did not stay long.

Lausanne was so cute! There was so much to do. Beau-Rivage Palace in Ouchy was absolutely worth the visit as well as the Cathedral. Hotel de l'Angleterre was right next door to the Palace, but I was not able to go in and walk around. And of course, the Olympic Museum. Vevey and especially Montreux are also worth the visit. Chillon Castle was a gorgeous true castle. So much history and beauty. We chose to go paddle boarding in Vevey instead of doing museums. We had intended to do the winery but did not get to it.

Geneva city tour with a bus and boat cruise was also not something I would recommend. The bus tour did allow us to see quite a few attractions but even while driving slowly, it was a different experience than seeing it walking. I did like the couple times we got off the bus. After the bus we took a tramway. They did a good job trying to allow you to see everything, but you could not fully appreciate the beauty of the structures while still moving. The boat cruise was in no way a tour. We just sat on a very hot boat for an hour. The Fondue cooking class was a great experience. I do recommend that. As much as I liked Lausanne, it would have been nice to stay in Geneva at least for the last night.

In general, suggestions for what to do and see during our downtime would have been helpful. In addition, knowing that stores and every day activities are closed on Sundays was important information we did not have. The Olympic Museum was closed on Mondays, and the Monday after we arrived was a holiday and therefore a lot of stores were also closed. More information regarding the guided tours is also necessary as I don’t think these were worth the money. Overall, the trip was great and I would recommend Switzerland to anyone.

From start to finish, KimKim was so attentive to our wishes and responded to all our inquiries in a prompt manner. We gave them
some of our ideas, and they filled in the days with places we did not know existed. We could not have been more pleased with their service. Their attention to the details of train schedules, passes, hotel reservations, etc took away a great deal of the stress of traveling in a foreign country with an unfamiliar language. They were also respectful of our budget. We would highly recommend this firm to anyone wanting to plan a stress-free getaway.

Our three days and nights in Salzburg exceeded our expectations , which were quite high to begin with. Mitch, the guide who provided two days of tours (one for Salzburg and one to drive us to Hallstatt) was an excellent fit for our group of 8 persons. He knew Salzburg details but did not flood us with information, however, when we asked questions he could provide interesting details in response. Clearly, his 30 years of living in Salzburg and his highly developed social skills were key... read more

Our three days and nights in Salzburg exceeded our expectations , which were quite high to begin with. Mitch, the guide who provided two days of tours (one for Salzburg and one to drive us to Hallstatt) was an excellent fit for our group of 8 persons. He knew Salzburg details but did not flood us with information, however, when we asked questions he could provide interesting details in response. Clearly, his 30 years of living in Salzburg and his highly developed social skills were key factors in providing us with one of the best guided tour experiences we have ever had.

In Hallstatt, Tomaz connected us with Brigitta, a guide with 20 years of experience leading tours. She is a local woman who knew the history of Hallstatt well and could explain why the town became a World Heritage Site. For a walking tour guide, Brigitta was the best we have ever experienced.

The lodging accommodations provided by Hof Wirt were fully worthy of its 3-Star status, if not more. Clean, comfortable, staff-friendly and the breakfast spread was amazing.

Thanks, Tomaz, for arranging an extraordinary experience for us in Salzburg.

Wonderful 9 day itinerary across Switzerland…mountains, lakes and valleys with city sites as well. Kimkim (Tomaz in particular) was very helpful laying out the initial plan, and the local company that worked the logistics was extremely detailed, accurate in all facets of the final plans with great maps and possible train connections. Overall couldn’t be happier with this experience.

George arranged it all
Very nice
Tom was great on the transfers and side trips

Tell any non German speakers to buy the translation. Booklet for the Passion Play
Available in many shops in Oberammergau
Made the play much better when we had them for the second half

Had a wonderful time in Slovenia's spectacular autumnal colours! A great way to get back into adventure travelling after having been unable to for so long. Local specialists Tomaz and Jala were both excellent in helping piecing together an excellent itinerary which included the places I wanted to see (Lake Bled, the Julian Alps etc) and the activities I wanted experience including hiking, paragliding and whitewater rafting. The Seven Lakes trek through the Julian Alps was both challenging and... read more

Had a wonderful time in Slovenia's spectacular autumnal colours! A great way to get back into adventure travelling after having been unable to for so long. Local specialists Tomaz and Jala were both excellent in helping piecing together an excellent itinerary which included the places I wanted to see (Lake Bled, the Julian Alps etc) and the activities I wanted experience including hiking, paragliding and whitewater rafting. The Seven Lakes trek through the Julian Alps was both challenging and spectacular, just the way I like it to be. Highlight of the trek for me was Lake Krn, coloured green by the minerals and surrounded by the reddish brown autumnal leaves. Jala did a brilliant job helping me find my hostel by phone when returning to Bled after finishing the trek. All local guides were brilliant in helping me find my way around as well as assisting with the local covid protocols. Paragliding above Lake Bohijn's reflections was amazing while lake Bled, the Jewel in Slovenia's Crown, was so relaxing, especially while enjoying the delicious Bled cakes! Finally, the capital, Ljubljana was very pleasant, especially when colourfully lit up at night. From Ljubljana, I had enough to time explore how spectacular Slovenia is underneath with a day trip to Postojna Cave. My first ever KimKim trip was both and exciting and relaxing experience, so well done during very difficult times in which to travel with the pandemic. Hoping for some more such memorable experiences in 2022.

This was our second time using Kimkim to help with our trip and as before everything was great. Maria, who provided the walking tour, was charming , informative and fun to spend the time with. The Wachau wine tour with Iolo was perfect. Wonderful wines, a special spot for lunch , all in all an enjoyable day. Both restaurant recommended were excellent. Zala responded immediately when we reached out with questions. We wished we were able to stay longer, but we will be back!

Thank you, Tomaz